Athens woman assaulted on way home from Christmas party

Friday

A 56-year-old University of Georgia employee was brutally attacked Tuesday night as she walked home from a Christmas party at her apartment complex north of downtown, Athens-Clarke police said.

The woman was knocked unconscious during the assault, and police didn't learn about it until after she woke up the next day and sought treatment at St. Mary's Hospital, according to police.

When officers interviewed the victim, they noted she had an extremely swollen and bruised eye, which "appeared to have something protruding from it," according to a police incident report that was filed on Thursday.

A doctor was unable to tell officers if the woman suffered any permanent eye damage, according to police.

The assault happened shortly after 10 p.m. at Bethel Midtown Village off College Avenue, where the victim lived and had attended a Christmas party with friends and neighbors. Police said as she was walking alone back to her apartment she realized she was being followed by a man who she knew only by his nickname, "69."

The last thing the victim remembered was that the suspect approached her outside of her apartment. She woke up inside her apartment the next morning, but couldn't remember how she got there. The woman looked in the mirror and saw that she had been punched in the eye, police said.

The victim told police that she was fully clothed when she woke up, but could not be sure if she had been assaulted in any other manner. Police said the woman planned to have an exam to make sure.

Nothing appeared to be missing from the woman's apartment, except a dish of leftover food that she had brought home from the Christmas Party, police said.

Though the victim only knew her attacker's nickname, she provided a detailed description that enabled police to identify a possible suspect.

She said that he was a tall, thin black man who had a droopy, clouded eye, a receding hairline and a scraggly beard, according to police. She knew that he hung out in the area near her home and that he frequented the North Avenue bridge where it spans the North Oconee River.

The description fit a 56-year-old Athens man in a criminal database, who goes by the nickname of "Slim 69," according to police.